Date:29/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/29/stories/2008082951500300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Court cuts claim sum

Staff reporter

MADURAI: The Madras High Court Bench here has reduced monetary compensation awarded to the parents of a 13-year-old school girl who died after her head was crushed under the wheels of a Government bus while crossing a road.

Allowing a civil appeal filed by Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation challenging the compensation, Justice M. Venugopal said that the girl too was responsible for the accident.

An eyewitness had deposed that the accident occurred when the girl alighted from her school van on the Devakottai-Karaikudi road on March 28, 2000, and rushed to her father who was washing clothes on the other side of the road.

The Motor Accidents’ Claims Tribunal in Devakottai, on September 5, 2001, awarded Rs. 2,20,500 to the girl’s father.

However, the Transport Corporation filed the appeal. Disposing of the four-year-old appeal, Mr. Justice Venugopal determined compensation at Rs. 2,27,100 and deducted 15 per cent towards contributory negligence on the part of the girl and arrived at a final compensation of Rs. 1,93,035.